Monocled Alchemist

Episode 10

Dylanisms | Podcast Mixes Celebrating Bob Dylan Cover Versions |‘Dylanisms’ is my 10-song mix podcast project, building an extensive archive of (mostly) 1960s recordings of Bob Dylan songs as recorded by various solo performers and groups many years ago.

I will zoom in on the well known and the very obscure outfits who covered Dylan’s numbers, in particular those unknown teenage garage bands from USA. There are many but this list on Wikipedia doesn’t even acknowledge them.

My ‘Dylanisms’ project will be regular and will uncover everything worth hearing. It will last for a one-year paid subscription with my hosting platform RSS.com. By then, my mission will have been accomplished and the Gods shall anoint my feet with patchouli oil . . .

Tracks in order of appearance:

01 Fairport Convention – “Si Tu Dois Partir”
Number 28 UK single hit, 1969

02 The Byrds – “You Ain’t Going Nowhere”
taken from the LP ‘Sweetheart Of The Rodeo’, 1968

03 Johnny Cash – “Wanted Man”
taken from the LP ‘San Quintin’, 1969

04 Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity – “Lonesome Hobo”
Marmalade 421 180 (1988) Produced by Giorgio Gomelsky The group had an international hit in 1968 with one of the great Basement Tapes covers, ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’, which also managed to capture that transitional era in British music where pop met the underground and fell under the spell of the summer of love.

Driscoll’s flamboyant dress sense and super-model looks helped propel their sole hit into the charts but in no way detracted from her strident vocal range.

“John Wesley Harding” was the source of this non-LP, French-only 7-inch by Driscoll & Auger which features an even greater performance from Jools who was already venturing towards her exploratory work with future husband Keith Tippett, initially in Centipede.

Dylanisms | Podcast Mixes Celebrating Bob Dylan Cover Versions

05 Fairport Convention – “I’ll Keep It With Mine”
taken from “What We Did On Our Holidays” LP Island ILPS 9092 (1969) Produced by Joe Boyd When Sandy Denny joined Fairport Convention in May 1968, they shared a repertoire of contemporary American songwriters which helped ease her into the group, not least songs by Bob Dylan.

One of Denny’s earliest home recordings was Dylan’s ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ in 1965. Appearing on “What We Did On Our Holidays”, the first of three albums released by Fairport Convention in 1969, ‘I’ll Keep It With Mine’ is one of Denny’s most towering performances. Dylan’s original recording dated from the 1965 “Bringing It All Back Home” sessions.

It is one of a number of Dylan songs Denny recorded during a mercurial career that, for many, was at its peak with Fairport Convention in 1968/9. The group’s only Top 20 hit came with a version of ‘If You Gotta Go, Go Now’ in August 1969 from “Unhalfbricking” where it was given a Cajun treatment and Denny’s loosely translated-into-French lyrics to become ‘Si Tu Dois Partir’.

06 The Mixed Bag – “Million Dollar Bash”
Decca F 12880 (1969) Produced by Tim Rice The Mixed Bag’s agreeable take on ‘Million Dollar Bash’ appeared as the B-side to ‘Potiphar’, credited to the Mixed Bag with the Ramases III Orchestra; the arrangements were by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the producer was Tim Rice.

07 Siouxsie And The Banshees – “This Wheel’s On Fire”
single on Wonderland, released January 1987

Dylanisms | Podcast Mixes Celebrating Bob Dylan Cover Versions

08 The Nice – “She Belongs To Me”
taken from the CD on (London Calling, 2018)
Fresh from a British tour with Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, in mid-December 1967 the Nice paid a short visit to Scandinavia, and performed a session for broadcast on Sveriges Radio in Gothenburg. It captures the quartet at their early peak, playing a blend of covers and tracks from their newly recorded (and not yet released) debut LP.

09 Chrissie Hynde – “In The Summertime”
10 Chrissie Hynde – “You’re A Big Girl Now”
taken from the album ‘Standing In The Doorway’ (BMG, 2019)